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What is Community-based Harassment?
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Community-based harassment is a grown-up version of school yard
bullying. Multiple individuals within a community participate in the
harassment and stalking of a single individual. However, rather than
attack a victim physically, techniques are used to undermine a person
psychologically. This can be far more damaging than a physical attack
because not only is it very hard to prove, but it is extremely
traumatizing for the victim. (Also known as cause stalking or gang
stalking).

What sets community-based harassment apart from the related examples to
the right is that the reason it takes place is often obscure to the
victim. Without a solid reason for its occurrence, victims are often
dismissed as delusional.

In addition, this form of harassment often leaves the target a victim
of ridicule among friends and family because of the subtle nature of
the attacks, which further compounds the trauma to the victim. It is
emotionally draining and isolating to the victims because it is
extremely difficult to prove, and virtually impossible to prosecute.

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Why is this Happening?
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Although it is difficult for a non-victim to understand, it is not
difficult to realize that many schoolyard bullies have never outgrown
their unhealthy ways of dealing with conflict and pain.

Reasons may include revenge by people who feel slighted but prefer to
remain anonymous. Revenge is more common than you may think, especially
with the advent of the internet which allows "revengists" or "avengers"
to share their ideas. See http://www.ekran.no/html/revenge/ or do a
search on the word "revenge" to see for yourself.

It is also possible that such harassment has developed into a form of
"sport" for the individuals who participate, not unlike a schoolyard
bullying situation, which tends to center somewhat obsessively and
irrationally around one individual who is perceived to be weak.

It is important to realize that our society's understanding of human
psychology has grown exponentially over the last 50 years, allowing any
hate or vigilante group to take full advantage of such knowledge.
"Psychological warfare" is the perfect crime, because it causes the
maximum damage to the victim, with the least chance of exposure of the
perpetrator(s). Victims can very well be driven to suicide, while the
explanation appears to be mental illness, so their claims are never
investigated.
Related Activities:

Other very similar phenomena include:

(1) Workplace harassment (or "mobbing")

(2) Vigilante style harassment of individuals such as abortion clinic
workers, whistle-blowers and activists. Vigilante groups take the law
into their own hands. Click here for two articles on vigilante groups.

Bullying of adults by other adults is a phenomenon which is sharply on
the rise, as described by the Toronto Star Article entitled "Raging
parents: The new schoolyard bullies". The article states that "compared
to a few years ago [this phenomenon] is everywhere". Parents "can't
control their rage" and "there is mounting concern about parents
behaving badly". The bullying doesn't take place just one-on-one, but
groups of parents gang up on individual teachers in internet chat-rooms
by holding "daily instant message bashing sessions about teachers they
dislike". Essentially, the bullying is organized, and the internet is a
key tool in facilitating that organization.

"Cause stalking [gang stalking] has been used by extremist groups since
the early 1990s. The basic system is alleged to have been developed by
the Ku Klux Klan and refined through years of use. The primary
characteristic of cause stalking is that it is done by large groups of
people. A target will always be followed, but he is unlikely to see the
same stalkers very often. Many of these groups include hundreds of
people."
- David Lawson,
Terrorist Stalking in America

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What is Technological Harassment?
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Technological harassment refers to the use of sophisticated technology
to view, track and/or harass a person from a distance. The technology
falls under the category of "non-lethal weapons" (NLWs) or "directed
energy weapons" (DEWs).

Crude "non-lethal" weapons are available on the internet and through
books. See: High-Tech Harassment: How to Get Even with Anybody Anytime
for an example of a simple weapon.

Fact Due to "black budgets" and claims of "national security" there
is no way for the average person to know what advances in technology
have been made behind closed doors. Not knowing about something does
not mean it doesn't exist. Click here for a letter about this
technology written by Dr. Caroline Lucas, Green Party MEP for South
East England.

Myth #2 You have to be important to be a target of such intense and
persistent stalking.

Fact This is primarily a hate crime, whose targets tend to be
neither wealthy nor public figures. Because the target is often no
longer able to hold a job, she usually lacks the funds to fight back.
What makes this different from other hate crimes is that the target is
often not made aware if the reason behind it.

Myth #3 If you think you are targeted, you must be mentally ill.

Fact While delusional thinking does exist, these situations have an
identifiable pattern to them. This type of harassment has been modelled
on past hate crimes and refined through years of use. It is intended to
make the target look crazy.

Myth #4 If you don't make them angry, they will stop.

Fact Like bullies in the school playground, they do not go away if
you ignore them. Victims have found, to their dismay, that the
targeting goes on for years. Exposure is the way to stop them.

"Electro-Magnetic (EM) weapons are one of the newest and most serious
military developments in the world today. Enormous secrecy surrounds
their development... Unless this development is stopped, we are
entering an Orwellian '1984' type scenario, which could potentially
permanently transfer enormous power to those in control of the
technology."
- Dr. Caroline Lucas,
Green Party MEP for South East England
Click here for entire article

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Who We Are
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We are a group of targeted individuals who have made the decision to
help ourselves as well as others by working together to expose this
disturbing crime.

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What We Do
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Thanks to the help of the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/Multicultural
Woman Against Rape, we are able to work at raising public awareness
through activism projects.

We are also able to offer a safe meeting place where victims can
overcome the sense of isolation and trauma and begin the process of
healing.

C.A.T.C.H. offers two kinds of meetings on a monthly basis: support
meetings and activism meetings. The support meetings focus on mutual
support and encouragement and are open to all victims and their family
members. The activism meetings are by invitation only.

A Word About Mental Illness

This situation is often perceived to be mental illness. Differentiating
between mental illness and a true multiple stalking and technological
harassment situation takes time. Victims may also have developed mental
illness as a result of the trauma. As mentioned on various mobbing
websites, this activity is so traumatic that it can cause mental
illness in an otherwise healthy individual. Therefore, mental illness
is not necessarily an indicator or proof that the situation is not
happening.

For these reasons, it is important to give a person the benefit of the
doubt and to remain open-minded and receptive to the idea that
something is happening that is not merely attributable to a delusion.
It took many years for mobbing to become publicly acknowledged, and
victims of this crime face the same uphill battle.

(3) multistalk - for victims of gang stalking. Discussion of
electronics not permitted in this group. For more info see:
www.multistalkervictims.org.

(4) mcforums - for mind control victims, victims of electronic
harassment and gang stalking.
For more info see: www.mindcontrolforums.com.
(Note: People have reported having negative experiences on the mcforums
discussion group [I am not referring to the website
www.mindcontrolforums.com, which is very informative]. Not all people
experience this, but it is important to be aware of this potential. My
advice is to approach this forum with caution, and to leave the
discussion group if it is making you feel worse rather than better.)

Relevant Pages

Re: Bach Aristocrat Bb Flugelhorn... house was done with the intent to commit a further act of stalking.... The court found that the lower court had properly denied the defendant? ... Cyberstalkers target their victims through chat rooms, message boards, ... victim a multitude of junk e-mail); live chat harassment or flaming ...(rec.music.makers.trumpet)

Re: Bach Aristocrat Bb Flugelhorn... house was done with the intent to commit a further act of stalking.... The court found that the lower court had properly denied the defendant? ... Cyberstalkers target their victims through chat rooms, message boards, ... victim a multitude of junk e-mail); live chat harassment or flaming ...(rec.music.makers.trumpet)

Re: Is Tad a stalker?... There were obviously complaints from the victims.... Second, I could probably accept what you say above, but harassment does not equal stalking....(rec.gambling.poker)